By Donna M. Farina
Recently, while speaking about immigrants, a national politician said: “We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor, in our entire nation, that can speak that language.” He emphasized: “These are languages, it’s the craziest thing. They have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing.”
For me, a linguist, it’s not horrible but exhilarating. Meeting someone who knows a language that is new to me is a treat.